Be There Development Timeline

In keeping with Jack.org’s youth-oriented approach, Be There’s content and design has been shaped by youth from the get-go. This year-long development process includes numerous touchpoints for youth input and feedback to ensure their needs are met and their preferences considered in terms of content, language and medium. Here are a few milestones in Be There’s development to date, speeding towards our May 2019 launch date! Check back soon to watch Be There come to life!

We committed to building Be There, to making it engaging and dynamic and letting everyone know about it. Our goal was to raise $100,000 to improve mental health literacy on a revolutionary scale. We asked and you answered. Through the 2017 Be There Crowdfunding Campaign we beat our goal and sparked a real community of people sharing their stories and talking to each other about the need for more effective mental health education. In essence, Be There is already working.

We surveyed 1,200 students to identify key questions young people in Canada need answered to effectively be there for one another. Questions like: How do I tell the difference between someone's regular changes in stress levels and changes that are signs of a bigger problem? What if I talked to someone about their mental health struggles online, how do I bring it up in person?

We hired a project manager to get Be There off the ground. Contracted Major Tom to develop a uniquely engaging, youth-informed resource. Their dedicated team of designers/developers, plus the passion we all share for a mental health revolution, made them the clear choice to help make Be There a reality.

We held interviews and two interactive ideation workshops with youth to get the creative juices flowing and collect insights into what kind of resource will help educate youth. Tested the first version of Be There prototypes with youth in Vancouver! Major Tom refined the initial prototypes and is testing Prototype 2 with youth to get the look, feel and organization of content just right.

Jack.org is Canada’s only charity training young leaders to revolutionize mental health.

This is not a site for personal disclosure of suicidal thoughts or behaviours. If you are in crisis, please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency department for assistance.